Toshiba's first PWR component

14 March 2014

The core barrel for the first AP1000 to start construction in the USA has been manufactured at a Toshiba facility in Japan, the first time the company has supplied a component for a pressurized water reactor (PWR).

Workers celebrate completion of the core barrel (Image: Westinghouse)

Construction on unit 2 of South Carolina Electric & Gas's (SCE&G's) VC Summer plant in South Carolina commenced in March 2013. Construction on a second Westinghouse AP1000 unit at the site (unit 3) started in last November. Two other AP1000 reactors are also under construction in the USA at Vogtle in Georgia, and four AP1000s are at advanced stages of construction at Sanmen and Haiyang in China.

The core barrel resides inside the AP1000 reactor vessel and houses the reactor's fuel. Toshiba's Keihin Product Operations in Yokohama, Japan, has manufactured many of the major components for Japan's boiling water reactors (BWRs), and also supplies thermal and hydroelectric power plants. However, this order from Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba, is the factory's first order to provide a component for a PWR. The core barrel is due to be shipped in April.

Last month Toshiba announced the opening of a new power engineering and production centre at Keihin Product Operations. The facility will "develop, design and market thermal, hydro, and renewable energy generation systems," according to Toshiba. The company established a nuclear power engineering centre at its Isogo facility in Yokohama in November 2009.